Transcript
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. I am Josh Roop. With me, my co-captain. Scott Larson. And Scott, we have a ton to talk about today. It's the Expo recap episode. Yep. ACDC was just revealed.
Speaker: There's a ton of games. Our favorite distributor sells them all. Who are you going if you want any of these games? Yeah, flipping out pinball. So I actually ordered a an LE for my friend. So we're getting an ACDC LE in my neighborhood. So I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm probably going to pick up a premium because I think it's awesome.
Speaker: it is It looks good. And it was cool some of the changes they made to this game. So yep you know what? Let's just jump right into it. So ACDC, this was like weirdly announced on Tuesday. And they said they would reveal on Wednesday. And then Wednesday showed up and it never revealed.
Speaker: And then like Thursday, dealers and distributors got to see it. And they said they'd have it at Expo on Saturday and it never showed up. What the heck is going on? Okay, i I can understand the drive to release a game. and this is it Expo has regained the pinnacle show status.
Speaker: which it should, it should, because it is the location of pinball. It's the manufacturing people come. They want to see the, you know, they want to see the manufacturing. They want to see the factory tour. So I can understand the drive to release it. You know what? Okay. I will give them credit though. They didn't meet their deadline, but they also did not make the mistake of bringing it out and letting people play it when it wasn't ready.
Speaker: So I'll give them partial credit on this. I'll give them like, I understand the ambition for them to try to push it out, but I also respect that they were smart enough to say, ooh, maybe it's not quite ready.
Speaker: They probably should have thrown out a little disclaimer. There's like, hey, we're still working out bugs. This is a great game. um The radio silence is kind of odd after they announced that it was going to be there.
Speaker: But, i okay, are you... That's a slight misstep, but are you disappointed or do you have any doubts that ACDC is going to be a solid game?
Speaker: I mean, we've played the original. There's been eight different iterations, I want to say, or this might be the ninth. Okay, let's count those up. Okay. So so the original ACDC Pro Premium LE, this was the first time they did a three-tiered system. They had been doing and an LE, but they didn't have the premium.
Speaker: But they had two LEs though. Yeah, so then if you move on, they had Back in Black. They ended up doing the Lucy, and then they did the Lucy. Okay, so was Let There Be Rock the original Ellie?
Speaker: I think that's another iteration. think there was an Ellie, and then then there was like Let There Be Rock, and then Back in Black, and then Lucy. Okay, I don't know about that. Okay, we need double-check that. i I actually think that they did a double l L-E.
Speaker: And they did a back in black and they did let there be rock. And I actually liked the let there be rock one, which my friend Gary had for a while. I do understand people said it kind of looked a little bit like a Ronald McDonald color scheme, which I agree. ah But I thought that was really cool. I i don't think there was a standard LE though.
Speaker: like So there was a standard LE. It was the back in black edition. Okay. Back in black. So, okay. So that was that one. Then they had the let there be rock. They also had the Lucy edition. Yes.
Speaker: And then they re-vaulted Lucy or they re-vaulted Lucy. Yeah. they They had the vault edition of Lucy, but they ah also had the vault edition bro the of the of the pro. They also had the vault edition of the premium too. Yes. So what are we at right now? who Yeah, that's a lot. Okay. But this, this is different though, in that they basically gave this the Metallica treatment.
Speaker: Yes. They said, okay, the play field is great. Hey, guess what? Um, It's a great design. And wait, who's the coder on this, Josh? the The most recent one?
Speaker: Well, okay. No. who Okay. Which code set is this? This is Lyman Sheets. Yeah, it's Lyman Sheets. I mean, come on. So they've released three remasters with Lyman Sheets. So yeah so obviously they know who's the best original coder of these setters. Historically, absolutely. Up until, you know like...
Speaker: If you look at the body of work, Lyman's work does stand above, right? Yes. So they're taking Lyman. They're giving the ah the Metallica treatment where they're doing the LCD screen. They're doing the modern stuff.
Speaker: There are some differences, though, like with the with the art presentation. So, Josh, let lead us through those. I mean, there's an Ellie and a premium and then they've kind of removed all the band except for like Angus and Brian, if I remember correctly. so okay. Sorry. I got this pulled up as we're talking. Yeah. Yes. It literally is just Angus young and Brian on and Brian Johnson. Yeah. Brian Johnson. And then, uh, yeah, like the play field for the most part is the same. They've upgraded the actual cannon to be a cannon. Uh, there's a train on there. Now there's an added spinner that wasn't there before on the, ah where was it?
Speaker: Oh golly. I know that there was the one spinner because obviously like one of the, the, the, um, strats was to get into a certain mode and then just crank on the spinner. Right. And then they've added a captive ball below in the lower play field. Yeah. So they retooled the lower play field. So that was a big upgrade. Okay.
Speaker: But other than that, it honest, it looks like ACDC. Okay. But it looks good, right? Yeah, it looks good. It looks good. I would say, and I, I, so Ron Hallett was there from slam tilt podcast. And Ron's great. We got, we got talking about it.
Speaker: I don't disagree that I feel like Metallica set a really high bar of what we should expect from these. And I don't know if Walking Dead and ACDC have matched it. I will say ACDC was better than Walking Dead in presentation.
Speaker: I just, I feel like Metallica was very, very well done. And I don't know if we hit the bar with this one. That's just my opinion. Okay. And Ron is very much of that same opinion as well.
Speaker: I'm going to reserve judgment just because I want to see it like when it comes out, when they work out all the bugs. Sure. ACDC is a great, ah is a great pin. And I, it's been on my short list of games that I wanted to get. um And I'm glad they did update it from the, ah from the DMD.
Speaker: Yeah. So it's hard. It's hard to get excited for the game. That's been obviously redone. How many times over the last, it was originally announced and shown in 2012. It's been the last 14 years and we just named off how many additions.
Speaker: I mean, okay. The additions over that, how is that different than Metallica? Metallica's only had the two editions. They had the original pro and the Pro Premium LE when it released, and then they had this Premium LE just go around. They the Roadcase. They have a different, the Roadcase edition.
Speaker: Yep. But they also, they made that for years. That's true. There's probably like 8,000 original Metallica's that are rolling out there. I don't think there's 8,000 original ACDs. No, I bet there's more.
Speaker: ACDC? No way. yeah. With eight editions, I doubt they made 1,000 each time it came out. Hey, did you eat some gummies at Expo? Because I think it's altering your perception. No, that was Craig Bobby. and yeah. yeah there there there is There is no way that ACDC outsold Metallica.
Speaker: There's no way. ACDC is one of the top three selling games of Stern of all time. i I think Metallica is up there. I agree. Metallica did sell a lot. Like I do not, I'm not, the problem is, okay, here's the situation. There was a lot of games made by Stern and we're fighting over probably the top two, one of the top two selling games. Sure. I bet they're both in the top five regardless. I would say they made way more Metallicas because there were, there was a reason why they vaulted it. They had a vault edition of it yeah because they, there was still demand for it because they didn't make a ton of them.
Speaker: This was, we talked about this right before we started recording. This was when they were turning the corner. They, you know, you have a wizard of Oz was announced. Then they start turning the corner. They, they, they dip their toe in the water with Tron.
Speaker: Tron is like, Ooh, this is, this is nice. We can start putting some, some lights and some, some sound in there. ACDC was probably the best band pin up till that point.
Speaker: Yeah. And then Borg came out with Metallica. so Yeah. Okay. I don't care who from Stern will reach out. You don't have to give us numbers. Just say which one has sold more, ACDC or Metallica. Okay, because jo Josh and I have a ah a Mountain Dew riding on this. I want to know.
Speaker: Sounds good to me. Okay. All right. So let's move on from ACDC. Okay. Fallout was there. I think this is the first time it really was in the wild for a ton of people to play outside of. Well, they have been shipping these. like there's They have? Yeah.
Speaker: They've been really on the ball with Fallout and the reception for it has been amazing. And the media behind this has just exploded like this.
Speaker: This has been a win all across the board, in my opinion, like for everything. The game played great at Expo. They had them all set up very nicely. i played a ah couple of them. I never ran into an issue where they weren't playing good.
Speaker: But seriously, I, i It's interesting because I feel like it's polarizing. And I think the reason it's polarizing is because it came out of the gate so hot. There were so many people saying that it was like going to take on Godzilla number wise. I don't know if that is realistic, but there was a ton of positive hype. And so I think people are pushing back of like, no, there's this, there's this, there's this.
Speaker: I don't know, but my personal opinion, I'm really enjoying Fallout. yeah I think it's a game I will probably get. i don't see why not. Um, But yeah, it's it's good.
Speaker: Yeah. i So I have it. I have the l LE. It's actually, i I have not had a chance of moving it down to the basement. so ah So full disclaimer, I did not go to Expo. And the reason why I didn't go to Expo a couple reasons. One, my in-laws had an 80th birthday party, which they scheduled as a surprise one that they scheduled the day BYU played Notre Dame. So I didn't get to use my tickets, but that's okay. I actually found it. Josh, I don't know if I told you the story though. like that I wasn't planning on using the tickets, but i i gave a i think it was supposed to be used for a different purpose because gotcha I ended up calling. So the the surgeon I go down to Guatemala with, i don't know if I told you this.
Speaker: The surgeon I got a Guatemala with. Yeah. I was calling him for another reason. I said, hey, why you take your wife to the game? And he said, well, I would, but I have a friend that I've known for most of my life who is has terminal cancer. And we were watching the Oregon and Nebraska game that day.
Speaker: And I said, why don't you take him to the game? So it was actually a really sweet story. He he actually is ah he has terminal cancer. He's going through financial things and he's never been to a big college game.
Speaker: And he, because finances are tight, he didn't think it was going to happen. So he actually got to the game and so it was his first game. So BYU Notre Dame, BYU wins. And his daughter was actually working the the booth and it was also cancer awareness day.
Speaker: And so he actually, they she asked like, can we get him in? They're like, well, it's a hospitality thing. she's like, well, he he actually does have cancer, terminal cancer. And so they let him in. So he actually had like the time of his life. And so that was awesome.
Speaker: Um, so I didn't go to expo because I was down in St. George and my mother-in-law fell and broke her hip. And so last week we were doing the surgery on that and we were down there doing a surprise birthday party. So everything I'm getting is vicariously through Josh. And so, uh,
Speaker: even though Josh is wearing a sweet shirt from Christopher Franchi, Chris, yeah frachy I'm not going to hold it against you that you didn't give a shirt for me, even though I was doing the Lord's business down at my in-laws. So, all right. All right. Okay. So all this is with Christie, Chris, we love you. Yeah, it's fine.
Speaker: i But all this is like, jo I was living vicariously through Josh because I was texting was like, Hey, ah what's going on the show and what's all that stuff. So, Fallout. Okay. so Circling back, Fallout.
Speaker: Of course, it's not going to do the same thing as Josh, as Godzilla. A couple of things. One, COVID happened. That was a a singular event in in pinball sales because yeah people were home. They wanted home entertainment. It was also, one, a lower price. Two, there wasn't a lot of competition at that time.
Speaker: Well, and also the government was handing out checks too. Yes. Yeah. so So there was a lot of things together. Now, is Fallout as good as Godzilla? um Maybe. i guess we'll find out where where it goes with it. I think I would say it's a different game.
Speaker: It feels like a much different game and there are great things about it. So I don't really care if it outsells Godzilla, which it's not going to do.
Speaker: um However, it is a solid effort by the Keith Elwin team, you know Rick and Harrison. Everybody did such a great job of getting that together. And if you are a Fallout fan, absolutely, this is a great game. And I'm not a Fallout fan. I've never played the franchise.
Speaker: But this is such a solid game. It shoots really well, and it's it's challenging. ah In many ways, if you look at Keith Elwins, it's almost like it's it's kind of a zoomed-out playfield. It seems like you're far away. There's a lot of things going on. Fallout seems like a zoomed-in playfield.
Speaker: But that's not a bad feeling. It just feels more like it's dangerous. It feels a little more dangerous. Yeah. and And then the thing that this that you and I were having was if you like drop catch yeah on the left flipper and it went up into in lane, it would then go to the out lane, like hit the popper and go out. yep yep Tim Lee had suggested there is a little post that actually slides up and down doesn't have holes like your usual out lane post does. and move it up with just 50% and then it won't stop the feed, it still creates some danger, right? He said pretty much if you move the left out lane post all the way down and that post all the way up, it will not drain out the left. Yeah, but you want it to be dangerous. i Come on. Exactly. It's designed that way.
Speaker: a lot of people are complaining that the left side is a drain monster. Move the posts. Yeah, it's fine. You can adjust it. Yeah, move the book exactly. put Put on your big tech pants and you can actually adjust the posts in the outlanes. That's how it works, kids. It's it's one Phillips head screwdriver. just Just get her done. Yeah. Anywho. So, okay. Fallout. Fallout's kind of, i don't want to say it's old news, but like it's obviously. we We talked about it.
Speaker: It was not the reason I went to Expo. Yeah. And it means because I came to your house and played. I did one eye. what yeah Josh had surgery on one eye and he was playing my game. Yeah. That was trippy. I'm not going to lie, but it was awesome. and and And the people got to see the video last week that we put out of the unboxing that we did and going through all of it and very well received. So thank you for, for watching that. um Let's see what else have got on the list?
Speaker: Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. This is my first time playing it. have Have you played it yet? i I haven't had a chance of playing it yet. so So this is all you. It looks fun. It looks like if you're a fan of Sonic, then it looks like it's going to be thematically consistent with it. But I'm going to defer to you on this one.
Speaker: Okay. I enjoyed Sonic. um I think it was really fun. i do agree that the lower playfield oddly does look like Pokemon's playfield. I don't have any rhyme or reason for that.
Speaker: having a clue, but that upper play field is really cool. I was nervous because the flipper gaps pretty huge on it. And there is a center post, but once you get into the flow and the fill of it, it actually was really fun.
Speaker: Is it a different flipper gap? It's, it's wide. You should look at the picture. It's, it's Is it like a Trudeau design, like flipper gap? It's like bigger than t true dudo Trudeau, dude. It is really huge.
Speaker: But the funny part is because of the angle that the ball's coming out from the sides of the flippers down the in-lanes, it's not as bad to kind of bump and and move. There's a challenge there, but I was nervous. It was just to be like,
Speaker: flip and you're dead but it it wasn't that way so uh really really fun interesting i didn't know i didn't know that they had messed with the the flipper gap because oh no no this is on the upper play field this is oh okay oh okay got it got it i i thought you were talking the lower play field and like that would have been a bigger bigger news but okay the lower play field is the same the lower play field is the usual flipper gap it's the upper play field that's yeah okay yeah i did know the upper play field was a wide gap So it plays are really good.
Speaker: ah From what code I saw, it felt ah rinse and repeat. But this is a game, too, that i only played handful of games on.
Speaker: I would like to get more time on it. Yeah, it was good. I mean, if you're a Sonic fan, I think you're happy with it. It's very pretty. That's the thing. JJP pig's really, really good-looking games. They make beautiful games. yeah Arguably probably the best-looking games in the industry. i I would say them and Spooky.
Speaker: like they They make pretty games for sure. and so And so i would argue I would argue though that I'm glad that Sonic and um and Pokemon are accessible though. yes it it's a it's a It's a video game theme.
Speaker: yes And so we we should be able to have something that is a little more accessible for a younger crowd. Speaking of themes, this is I'm going to foreshadow right now, okay?
Speaker: I think this applies to a handful of companies I saw this weekend. JJP's biggest hurdle is their previous game, Harry Potter. Oh, yes.
Speaker: Holy crap, that game is so good. I play it every time I see it, and I just... It's one of those games. It is fast and mean until you figure out the flow and then it just, it feels so good.
Speaker: It's such a good game. So that is, I think that's the problem. Sonic has the shadow ah living in the shadow of Harry Potter. You know what i'm saying? Yeah. However, i we talked about this a little earlier okay.
Speaker: okay And this is not me disparaging any other designers. Okay. Okay. I think we can all agree that Keith Elwin is the highest selling designer of the last eight years.
Speaker: Yes, I agree. Yeah. By, by a wide margin. Right. And so obviously something that Keith is doing is working really well. Yes. Okay. And the same thing with Eric, Eric came out with, with Harry Potter and it is such a great game.
Speaker: The challenge is is i don't think other people should be penalized by a comparison between Harry Potter or, or any of Keith's designs. It, because I i would argue you can look at the Keith Elwin effect and you can even look at Eric and Harry Potter.
Speaker: And i would say it is pushing other designers to elevate their game. So a I, I do agree with you. The, the tendency is to say, well, it's not Harry Potter.
Speaker: Okay. Well, he's fallout. It's not Godzilla. Yeah. agree Is that, is that the pushback you're always going to get? It's I, I think it can be a solid game in its, in itself.
Speaker: Yeah. No, i agree. So overall, I think if you're Sonic fan, you're happy with this game. Okay. All right, moving on. Dungeon Crawler Carl and Ender's Game slash Ender's Game.
Speaker: it It sucks that you kind of have to place them together, but because of the the layout and everything, it's just like... The layout's the same, but the rule sets are completely different. Yes. We did confirm that. um I didn't have enough time on it, so I didn't fully understand Ender's Game. I was a little confused of what was going on.
Speaker: But the light show was super cool. And like even how the lights were integrated into the play, the upper third play field and how they went through the play field and up onto the plastics.
Speaker: Like it just, it was super, super cool. um And then there's a light ring that actually goes around the the center spinning disc. And that was really cool as well. ah I think it's cool because we've known Glenn Wecker for years and It was cool to hear his voice in this game as a general telling us what to do. Right. And it reminded me kind of the general from wreck it, Ralph, like congratulations soldier. You just want a medal, you know? Yeah. um I don't know. I loved it for that aspect.
Speaker: Moving over to dungeon crawler, Carl, they're putting the first seven books in or did they, are they saying they go into eight? well I think they're ending at Fraction Wars, which is seven. I think they only have the first two in there right now. They only have the first two, but I think overall the goal is to have up to the first seven books.
Speaker: um I played both book one and two. I really enjoyed book one because when we had Wesley on talking about the codes that he'd mentioned is similar to Monster Bash.
Speaker: So I went into that mindset of playing it like that, and it does play like Monster Bash in. You shoot the shot until you collect the monster, and then there's a final shot that you shoot, and you can attack all the monsters at the same time.
Speaker: Some people um have beef with it because they don't fight all the bosses at the same time in the first book. I get that. Okay. It's not Connell, like, can I, blah, blah, blah. They also don't play pinball in the first book either. I know. I agree.
Speaker: I think it was very well done. i love, I love that Jeff Hayes is in this game, dude. His call-outs just, like, chef's kiss. Like, they're so good.
Speaker: Um, The second book was good. I didn't fully understand what was going on. Again, you're only playing two, three games. um It's early code. Yeah. yeah It's early code. So let's, but did you like the presentation though?
Speaker: Love the presentation of dungeon crawler, Carl. um My, I think the hardest time I'm having with this again, I own portal. I still think Portal, shocker foreboding, right?
Speaker: Or foreshadowing. I still think Portal is Multimorphic's best game. Like it just, the way it integrates with the theme, the way the theme integrates with the machine, like it was made for P3.
Speaker: And Dungeon Crawler, Carl, and Ender's game are good. So I don't want to disparage because, you know, Portal, yada, yada. But there are aspects of the game that I wasn't enjoying as much.
Speaker: Um, I do feel like the disc itself isn't distracting, but the centerpiece is because it's, it's there to hold the disc up and that's right in the center of the play field.
Speaker: And it, well, it's, it's more to like the left of center. Yeah. it's And so I was, yeah, I felt like I was avoiding the left side of the play field cause didn't feel comfortable shooting it. Okay. Um,
Speaker: And Jerry had said, once you kind of get in that flow of how it feeds the upper flipper and then get that upper flipper to that upper shot, it it starts to feel a lot better. I just didn't feel like i had enough time to start dialing that in, right? And that could change as I go on.
Speaker: Overall, it's it's a good effort. like I still think it's a really good game. It's still one of Multimorphic's top games that they've produced. um Yeah, it just runs into that that same thing of portals, just a lot better in my opinion.
Speaker: so Okay, i I will say, I'll push back on this aspect. you've had time on portal. You've probably played at least 50 games on portal. Oh, way more. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so I will, ah I will reserve judgment until we have a little more time on it to see, okay, how is it seasoned? And this is where I want to, you know, i'd I'd love to play Ender's game with Colin.
Speaker: Cause I know Colin did the rule set and Colin's a really good player and he could help yeah help out. Um, I also really appreciate that it is a more serious book. The Ender's Game is like, I really enjoyed listening to that because I didn't listen to it as a kid.
Speaker: And it's a surprisingly deep story. ah So, you know, obviously dennger cro collar Dungeon Crawler Carl is ridiculous, over the top, hilarious.
Speaker: um there's There's probably more gravitas with Ender's Game. So I'm really looking forward to seeing both of them together. And I do like that they have independent rule sets that don't overlap.
Speaker: I agree. We'll see. Also, how they look, how the sculpts look. Oh, they look so good. Davey from stumbler between that and the stuff he did on circus full tear. yeah Dude, the guy is on fire and seriously, those mods are amazing. The funniest thing is I was actually behind the scenes. I was trying to push Davey to, uh, Hey, I want to buy like a set of a dungeon crawler, Carl, um,
Speaker: you know, his figs. And I was trying to push behind the scenes and he, and he agreed to it. And I said, you give it to me or I'm going to kill your mother. And he said, Oh wow, that's surprisingly dark.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, you, you haven't read the books then. Like you don't realize that that's what Samantha says in like book four. And like all the time. Yeah. All the time. That's the cat. I'm like, okay, that's the catchphrase of one of your, the floating head that you have. So yeah. And he's like, oh, okay. That that would makes sense. But I also bought a big, uh, 3d print. It's, it's like one of those wood things from Brad Albright, um, of, uh, princess donut and Mongo. So yeah.
Speaker: Nice. Waiting for that to get delivered to me. I think it's a lot bigger than I thought it was. So I have to find a place for it I thought was going to be like palm size. And I think it's probably about like, like 12 inches size. Like, oh, that's probably four times as big as I thought was going to be.
Speaker: So, so overall thumbs up for multiple perfectic for me. All right. Um, moving on, I've got Yukon Yeti on the list. Okay. Uh, this, this game. Okay.
Speaker: I'm a huge fan of white water. Um, it's one of those games when I first got into pinball between circus Voltaire, revenge for Mars, whitewater fun house. These are kind of the games that like I really got excited about when I started getting into an understanding pinball.
Speaker: So I feel like in my mind, Yukon Yeti, I have a higher standard for it, even though it may not be realistic, right? I know it's the spiritual successor. So I start playing this game and I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker: um i I think Dennis Norman did a good job with Yukon Yeti. I think the layout is a good homage to Whitewater.
Speaker: My beef with the the layout is, so underneath the upper play field where you're shooting, um it's like horseshoes all kind of together to come back at you. I'm not a huge fan of horseshoes.
Speaker: Like, they're fine, but I don't...
Speaker: To have multiple horseshoes, it turns into like Swords of Fury, which I get is like a beloved game, but I think it's because it yells Lion Man more than anything. Lion Man! Exactly. So...
Speaker: the one beef not beef but what makes the original whitewater easy is you can get up onto the play field by shooting the center shot and it just pops right up there for you right this one you have to work for it a little more you have to hit it from the side shot the side flipper and it's not a ramp so it actually goes back into this little alcove into a buck so it's not as hard as having to hit like a ramp that goes up and have to hit clean and solid sometimes you can kind of not hit it perfectly and it kind of wiggles its way back in there right um
Speaker: Overall, I felt like it played good. I just have a hard time of like the Yukon Yeti theme just doesn't connect with me on the same level Whitewater does.
Speaker: And the music was fine and everything. But I do have to give like kudos to Chris Turner because when i was talking to Kel from Electric Bat, they said they've had a Yukon Yeti at the bat for a while now.
Speaker: And it has over 2,000 plays on it and they've not had to lift the glass once. And that's actually what you told me. And I thought, okay, this has always been my criticism of small companies, right?
Speaker: Is yeah they tend to struggle with reliability. So Chris, if, if you have designed a game and Hey, it doesn't have to be the most amazing game on the planet on location. It needs to be entertaining and reliable.
Speaker: And so good for you. If that's really what you're, if that's what your goal is with you, Kanye, I'd say mission accomplished. I agree. I think they did a good job.
Speaker: My concern moving into the future and granted he's the engineer. He probably knows his platform a heck of a lot better than I do. If you've ever un looked looked under a Turner pinball machine, their circuit boards are similar to like CGC, which they're just printed massively and screwed to the bottom of the thing.
Speaker: Games like fallout. If you, we went the underside of that game. I don't feel like, and I could be wrong, there would be a way to have that many protruding mechs down under the playfield with these massive circuit boards. So I don't know if it hinders the design at all when making these games. I guess it depends if you broke them up into smaller circuit boards. Maybe they haven't had to.
Speaker: Because they maybe really haven't had the the amazing mechs that they're putting. that they're They're not competing with amazing mechs. So maybe it's more of a custom thing. Who knows?
Speaker: But and granted, that doesn't really have to deal with Yukon Yeti. That's just like looking into the future, right? ah Overall, Yukon Yeti was very, very solid. I thought it was good. Okay. So um moving on, the other new one. So i'm gonna I'm going to try to reserve the remakes for like the last.
Speaker: Okay. All right. The other new one was three Musketeers from hexa pinball. And I don't want to be mean. it it was not my cup of tea. It's okay. okay I, okay. I would say that they've always been out there.
Speaker: Like, yeah. And they had like the, what was the game they brought last year? A space hunt. And it was there as well. It's fine. Okay. It's there. It's pinball. It's, it's something it's.
Speaker: I think that space hunt is more dynamic and diverse though than three Musketeers was. It's like a big orbit shot that goes around the outside. There's a right ramp. And i kid you not, the entrance to that ramp is massive. Like it's hard to miss it.
Speaker: And then there's some some drop targets in front of a house. And then there's like a couple more shots. There is a cannon. That's cool. But the game just felt kind of barren. Like I just wasn't super impressed with what it was.
Speaker: And like I said, I know that they're trying and they're putting forth an effort, but I just, I don't see myself ever owning this game or space on for that matter. Okay. But okay. Let's just say you went to an arcade and you saw it there and you've never played it. Would you put a dollar in?
Speaker: I put a dollar in cause I've never played it before. intrigues me. I don't know if I return though. Okay. But that, that is something to say. There's something niche about it to say, this is an alternative option.
Speaker: compared to what everybody else is doing. That is one thing that they can have going for them is if they're trying to push an experience that other people don't offer because it's, it's small. mean, they're probably going to make less than a hundred of these.
Speaker: So who knows? maybe Maybe that's something I would do is ah if I walked to a bar and I saw a three Misketeers, I would probably put a dollar in to see it. Maybe even five to see how far I could get.
Speaker: agree. um Okay, moving on from that one. This random pinball, and I don't know how many people actually noticed it. I've never heard this company before. This is a newish pinball machine. Lost in Space, based off of the 1960s TV series was there.
Speaker: Rob Burke had bought it from a company I've never heard of, Vector Pinball, based out of Australia. it there. I was not impressed. Like, okay if your goal was to make 1980s pinball modern, then you accomplished that.
Speaker: But outside of that, it just, you plunge to the upper play field, yeah similar to like a Black Knight or to a Flash Gordon. But like, you're shooting at like seven stand-ups, five are yellow, two are blue. And then like they light up.
Speaker: And so you're just trying to shoot the lit up ones or like it remembers which ones you shoot. The blue ones have small holes cut out below them. Like gobble holes? Like gobble holes, but it's an upper play field. So it falls down into a pop bumper nest.
Speaker: Yeah. And then that's kind of it. that There's like some ramps that lead kind of back up to the upper play field and an orbit. And there's a couple of other shots. And probably forget it. It just... It was not. Okay. The eighties was not a great time for pinball. Like if you're saying you're channeling the eighties, that's like saying I'm, I'm channeling a 2005 Stern. mean, it's not a high bar.
Speaker: I agree. The eighties was hit or miss and there were some really good hits from the eighties, but there were some turds, right? Okay. Well, that's the, that's 2000 to 2010. There but I'm saying early eighties. I'm not talking like,
Speaker: As we were leaving the 80s. Like, we're not talking about whirlwind. We're not talking. know saying? Yep. So I look into this vector pinball because I've never heard of them before. This is their fifth game they've released. I think I've heard of them, but certainly they're an Australian company. They're certainly not high volume.
Speaker: So you're talking boutique boutique. It's build to market. So, like, they don't build it till you call them, essentially. Their first game was eight ball fury, which was like a read whatever of eight ball, not eight ball deluxe, but eight ball.
Speaker: Yeah. And then they have a NASCAR themed one, Peter Brock's KOTM, whatever that is. And then there's a Holden Heritage Edition, which the county county is game three.
Speaker: haven't looked at these play fields, but is this ahs it's another car theme. they and They have to be selling less than 50 of these. There's no way this is their main their main business. And then game number four is called Ned Kelly.
Speaker: Based off that theme, guess what that's about? They sold one. They sold one to Ned's mom. Okay. The Backglass? It is a black knight looking guy holding a rifle in one hand and um a pistol pointing at your face with the other. That's weird.
Speaker: How, how did, maybe this is a, an Australian thing. I don't know what's weird. Which is funny. His guns are American, not Australian. So I just, it's the goofiest thing I've ever seen. And in lost in space, that's why I'm like, I don't know. No, and you go to their website and there's very, very little information about it.
Speaker: And the only reason thing I'm bringing any of this up, I guess is cause Rob Burke had that game there. And I'm just like but Rob likes finding the, uh, finding interesting games. Yeah. i But here's the thing. This game, okay, it's 13-5 Australian.
Speaker: And if I did the conversion correctly, it's like 9 American, I want to say. let me Sorry, I should have been more prepared. so Okay, but so basically, if you want a very... It's ninety five American.
Speaker: Would you pay a Stern premium price for this game? Me, heck no. There's no way. No, i I wouldn't even pay 5 grand for it. Yeah. Like, and I'm not trying to be be mean about this, but it's just the weirdest.
Speaker: And it's funny because I'm asking. but I asked another audience that wants something no one else has. that that's your audience it is not it is not a an audience that wants a well-functioning game it's a audience that wants something that no one else has why would you why would you make a ah theme of lost in space i this it's not even like battlestar galactica or buck rogers or or so or something that i've care about and lost in space that that's that's like
Speaker: Gilligan's Island. I'm sorry. I feel like, I don't know. The problem was, is I growing up, remember the lost in space movie that came out in the nineties and it, it had a little bit of impact. It wasn't the best movie, but I feel like there's a little bit of tout behind it And I think it's one of those things that like maybe if in the right hands, it could be done in a good boutique style company. But it just this feels so random and weird. like They could have not paid much for the licensing on this, right? like i just
Speaker: It falls into the I've heard of it theme. That's it. ah There's nothing about the theme, but it probably is on the same level as peanut butter and jelly.
Speaker: like i've heard of peanut butter and jelly too but it's not like i would buy a game with it yeah yeah true okay i'm i'm i'm getting off of that soapbox because it's just it's it's okay if you want something no one else has order that ye sure yep true right let's get into these remakes okay uh tales of the arabian night from prodretti gaming um I own a fun house, so I had a certain expectation going into this. Okay.
Speaker: I will o admit that it not the best remake made, but it's definitely not the worst remake made. Fun house? Fun house, yes. Okay, all right. So going into this, my expectations were not set.
Speaker: They were set and a like a seven hours hour tour. were mid, midd yeah mid. Yeah, mid. Man, Pedretti blew it out of the water. Flipper Phil was solid all expo long. I think it's the only game I went back to and played every single day of an expo.
Speaker: Um, yes, there's still the code hiccups that are there, but outside of that, everything else has been done at such ah an amazing level that it bringing on that cgc team uh um and helping with the progression of the code and everything and then the dot display it looks and feels and sounds really really good like and i every person i talked to that talked about totem they all said the same thing of like we were not expecting this good and don't know if it's because funhouse
Speaker: had mixed reviews, but like my only, what did I say? My only criticism of this game was Ron pointed this out. The DMDs like either expanded too much or something.
Speaker: so if you're paying attention, the bottom part of the dots are cut off just a little bit. It's not enough to be like, like, I don't think if I asked anyone generally, they probably would have never noticed.
Speaker: it's it's because ron's a freaking superstar when it comes to like looking at okay ron knows way more about pinball than i'll ever know the the fact that something like him picking out on the james bond pro that the pop bumpers are firing simultaneously okay that that's like a level of of scrutiny that i don't have yeah and he he's that good and so yeah he's good uh okay i yeah you're not the only person who's told me that that Toten was probably the most surprising by far of the show.
Speaker: And so if Pendretti has able to level it up and there's rumors that you may be getting one of these. So I am looking forward to, to coming out and playing this and seeing it. I it's ah there is certainly a market for a well done remake of Toten.
Speaker: yeah So the the fact that they actually had a solid outing at expo gives me high hopes that they can make it work. Yes. As long as they can deliver. Right. I don't see anything slowing down the momentum of this game, but that is the challenge.
Speaker: You've made a great game. People are seeing them now. They are starting to get into some homes, but they're trickling out. But it's not still not terrible because when did we when did they announce it? June?
Speaker: End of June and june being of July. We're into October. So it's not terrible, but it's still a delay compared to... Okay. So next we have Circus Voltaire.
Speaker: Yes. So that's, that's the American pinball thing. Now I actually have high hopes for American pinball because Brian seems like a solid guy who knows what he's talking about. And this is actually one that I'm really interested in and looking at getting one of those for my house, because I i do like the theme, even though it's a very straightforward, not the deepest code, but it's still a fun game to play.
Speaker: Yes. Okay. Uh, for the, for expo, they want to reiterate. These are pre-production games. just so So these are prototype and I'm going to give American pinball, uh, in some ways a pass because this is not anything. Okay. They bought all the, all the games from the previous version of American pinball, but this is basically a new company.
Speaker: so So I'm going to give them a little bit of a pass to say, I want to see how well they can get up to up to speed. And if they can make a ah good reproduction of Circus Voltaire, then absolutely I will have one of these.
Speaker: I will hand it to Brian Vitsant and also the team over there at American. The first day, some of the games were off. um The flippers weren't flipping strong enough to get up the ramp for the lock.
Speaker: and we're like great these are mushy flippers yada yada yada um they figured out they put in the wrong coils for the flipper coils on some of them so they apologized they put in the right fifpler coils gameplay great that's another game i was consistently going back to and just enjoying and then it was awesome because they had one in the back that if you knew someone, you could get back there and play, right?
Speaker: And so I found myself and my son Carter went with me and I found us getting going back there a lot because i just kept, this is the very first game I played in pinball when I got into pinball back in 2010, right?
Speaker: This is the game that I was like, wow, this is what, holy crap, you know? And so like I have this weird nostalgic lens to it. And so I was afraid i was putting it too much on a pedestal. It is still circus Voltaire.
Speaker: It's a fun, okay. It's a fun game. It's not the deepest game, but it, okay. How many, how many eighties film? Okay. I'm not even going to get into my hate for ghostbusters because otherwise we'll just get flamethrower again, but okay. I watch empire strikes back and I can see it through an adult lens now and say, okay, I can see where the flaws are in the movie.
Speaker: I can also say it's still one of my favorite movies. Yeah. Right. I was go ahead. Yeah. but But that's I'm saying. Like you can still like a game that is basic and doesn't have the deepest code. It doesn't have to be.
Speaker: i still like playing the old ah Nintendo Entertainment System Contra and I probably can beat it on three guys now, which you could never do without the code. It's not a deep game. You can finish in 20 minutes. Okay. Yeah. Circus Voltaire. It's not a deep game. You can probably finish it in 20 minutes.
Speaker: I was super impressed overall with Circus Voltaire. I love because the thing about being the back two is like you have the people that working on this game explain to you what they've done to upgrade it.
Speaker: I totally spaced from the original Circus Voltaire. It spells circus and big inserts in the middle the play field. And it does absolutely nothing besides the lineup. They have now tied that to playful multipliers. Okay.
Speaker: And as you light them, you get more multipliers based on whatever you're doing, right? So that's cool. Like the lighting's cool. That neon tube, and I know they explained this on the interview, but like that's not just one solid color. It changes colors, but still it looks authentic to a neon tube of what they've done. Like there was just little nuances here and there.
Speaker: I'm not going to judge this one super hard. And the reason being is these are pre-production games. so It's a prototype. Yeah. There was ball hangups. Yeah. It's ball hangups. um There was some code flaws in the fact that like some ball searches weren't coded in properly yet.
Speaker: So overall, like there was some hiccups, right? But it still was a good, solid showing. And in my opinion, it was a win for them because they came out swinging hard.
Speaker: And when they made mistakes, they admitted to them and fixed them. And I think they're showing, Hey, this is what American pinball is now. Even Robin was like, you see this logo. this is who we are now.
Speaker: This is who we are moving forward. And I think that's, I think that's wonderful. So, and I was, when you interview Brian, you can tell that he knows how to manufacture.
Speaker: which they didn't have before. They just didn't. And so I, I actually have some pretty high hopes for what American pinball will do. Even if it's just making remakes, as long as they can make solid remakes, I'll buy it.
Speaker: Yeah, I did. Sorry. I forgot one on this list. That was not a remake. Beetlejuice. Oh yeah. basic It's just been out for so this whole year. like We talked to the next reveal and it played really good. Yeah. It was fun. It was enjoyable. It was, ah um It also runs into the same problem ah as Multimorphic and Jersey Jack. I still think Evil Dead is a better game than Beetlejuice.
Speaker: But Beetlejuice... Okay, Spooky, you are doing fantastic on theme integration. I think that like... Overall, you're in most ways leading the charge on how a game should be presented, right?
Speaker: Like the under glass experience on these games are just amazing. And I think that with like fallout, that was their, their clap back. Right. But outside of that, and i and I forgot Bon Jovi, which we'll talk about here a second. Yeah, we'll get there. um But Beetlejuice, it's so good when it comes to the art, like Franchi art and the game.
Speaker: I do have... It's not the layout's not my favorite, but overall, I think the game just is good. It's like really good. And spooky has built up this like repertoire now with evil dead beetle juice.
Speaker: ah Can I say Goonies? I'm saying Goonies because of, uh, we know, we know it's cranchy showed Goonie art and so any who? Yeah. um Highly, highly ah suspected Goonies.
Speaker: Yes. Okay. Yeah. It doesn't mean that I guess the art that he showed was tied to a new pinball release coming out, but I think spooky is doing it an excellent job right now of, of what they're doing under the glass and what they're doing as a company.
Speaker: And so the, the momentum is just there, right? Like it's hard to bet against them at this point. Beetlejuice is very, very solid overall. So, And then, like I said, let's lead into Bon Jovi. Yeah. Cause I know this is a Bon Jovi now. Cause this, you this is got this on order.
Speaker: This is coming off that, that just put in context. This is coming off, you know, labyrinth was their first game. So that was their, their maiden voyage. We're figuring out what they're doing.
Speaker: Then they jump in and they do Dune, which is, It's a great game. Solid. It's a great game. And then they had the surprise hit with Winchester, which I guarantee nobody, nobody thought was going to be an amazing runaway hit as it was. Okay.
Speaker: um So that was last year when they announced Winchester immediately sold out. And now they're coming out with Bon Jovi. So Josh, okay. I looked at Bon Jovi. I'm like, this is, this is exactly what you're looking for. A fun game.
Speaker: It looks, the presentation is amazing. The songs, if you don't know any john Bon Jovi songs, the Jon Bon Jovi songs, then you don't have a soul. I mean, come on. He he ruled the 87 to 92.
Speaker: ah When you're talking about like the pop rock, the the bubblegum pop rock stuff, ah he nailed it. And so, Josh, tell me what tell me what you saw It shoots really, really well.
Speaker: I think it's a really fun shooter. The funny part is my complaint of the layout was I feel like the shot to the heart. but Yeah. pundit Pun intended. Yeah. You're to blame, actually, so it's funny. I feel like that shot's a little tight.
Speaker: I feel like i don't know if it's the angle or the actual opening, but i I just couldn't dial it in. Granted, this is a game I bet if I sat down and learned to play it, yada, yada, right? Is it supposed to be a tough shot?
Speaker: i want to say yeah I want to say no and yes. The reason I say no is there's a lot of modes that you start and you have to hit that shot. It's the very first shot to to get going through the mode. And when you're having a tough hard time finding that shot, you get frustrated because you can't really move through the rest of the mode, right? Do you have to shoot it through the heart or do you have to hit the heart?
Speaker: think you have to shoot it through the heart. You you have to shoot it through the heart to qualify. There may be an option that if that continues to become an issue, They could change it to like the Demogorgon in Stranger Things where it used to be you had to get into the mouth of the Demogorgon and then they changed it to you just have to hit the Demogorgon.
Speaker: so Well, and and you don't actually really touch the heart when you're shoot when it's at play field level. It's just going through it. It's not necessarily that the heart is blocking anything. it's Just that shot at the angle and everything.
Speaker: um But like in I appreciate that shot for like multi-ball because the jackpot's at the heart. And so I don't want to make it super easy to hit the jackpot every time. You know So, um, but I felt like the backstage shots a lot easier, a heck of a lot easier to shoot, which is from a side flipper that goes up. Right.
Speaker: So overall the layout is, is pretty fantastic. Like I give it top tier there. I, the music's fine. Like, Hey, it's fine. Okay. This isn't, this isn't Shakespeare. This is like arena rock stuff. Like you're going to, you're going to hear it when you're just having a good time. Right.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. Um, but it's one of those s things too. Every song I heard, we all knew, right. Whether we were singing it for real or if we were like her, you know what I'm saying? Like the, just over over the top. Anywho.
Speaker: Uh, But I do have to give a shout out to Jeff Dotson of Dirty Pool Pinball who did the sound for all of this. The sound is fantastic. Like it just so good. And it was funny because like,
Speaker: they turned it down as low as they could go in one of the booths, not the, not the barrels booth, but like over by where multimorphic was because, um, the guy that also sells more than one of the dealers for multimorphic also sells barrels.
Speaker: And it was just funny. Cause like even on their lowest setting, I still felt like you were rocking, right? Like there we're starting out at 11 and we're going from here. but Well, okay. Mine, I got, to um, I got an announcement that mine's going to be ready in a month or so. So nice I'll have it here and we'll ah have it behind me with Fallout. so I felt like there was some code glitches, which can be fixed, right? You can fix that. Stern has code glitches all the time. They have games that are half finished when they come out sometimes. So code is something that I am willing to say, okay, you're releasing it. Let's figure out where it ends up.
Speaker: yeah I think overall, if you're a fan of Bon Jovi, you're very happy with this game. Okay? If they're still available, i wouldn't be opposed to recommending for someone to pick one up.
Speaker: It's a very solid outing. And ah once again, it does suffer from that like Winchester was just so good. sure But the funny part is is like I'm starting to hear from Winchester now that people are complaining it's too hard.
Speaker: Like it's just – too hard wait one of the best players on the planet designed a hard game i know it's crazy no but when other best players on the planet are complaining it's too hard to play okay well tell them to get better i mean come on you have to be top 10 to play it get better yeah you know who you are you're listening right now get better Now, Scott, play play that person in a tournament and see if they hand their butt to you or not.
Speaker: Well, if they hand their butt to me, then that that that would that would be them a pull pulling a double zero like Travis Murry. Okay. It's true. It's true. yeah But I think, let's put it this way. Winchester was really, really good. sure Like really good. It's the comparison syndrome, right?
Speaker: It's yeahs suffered by comparison. But I think if Carl takes what he learned from Winchester and it's able to make it more accessible moving into his next game, sure like he's going to be placed up there by oh one in my opinion.
Speaker: Could be. So just my thought. all right. Let's move on. We've been at this an hour. We've covered every game that's been at Expo. um one that i didn't want to bring up because other other content creators have been talking about this and it has kind of went dark for a second so resident evil this is being made by world pinball the website itself is down like when you type in world pinball or no resident evil pinball was the website it doesn't go to anything um i know the person's actually putting this together i reached out to him like a year ago because i'm really enjoy resident evil like it was it's terrible of me to say this is my childhood growing up like my my friends we rented m-rated games and we were eight playing zombie games i had nightmares whatever but i'm excited for this game i reached out to the guy
Speaker: He said, yes, I'm still making it. um And he sent me pictures of the game. I'm not going to post them here because I don't know if they were meant. Okay. But you've actually seen there's some progress being made. So this is to be determined. I've seen part of side of the cabinet and I've seen the, it doesn't have a traditional plunger. It has more.
Speaker: It has a gun-like shadow. okay I don't think I'm out of bounds by saying that. so That's fine. yeah you can You can look at those things. But, hey, gayy i if someone takes a while to make ah a machine and they're not taking $12,000 deposits, then fine. Take as long as you want. It's your company.
Speaker: Exactly. um There was a new company there, Hidden Implained Site. um I'm trying to think exactly what they said I could say. because It was funny because like I was talking to them.
Speaker: And I'm like, what is that on your shirt? And they're like, oh, that's our new company. I'm like, wait, what? um Okay. okay I will give you this.
Speaker: Ryan McQuaid, formerly of American Pinball, that design cuphead, because that was actually acknowledged by... uh i can't remember okay a it's cuphead we we can just accept that it was yeah ron had actually confirmed that okay so ryan mcquaid he also did sonic spinball he is one of the new designers working at this new company so okay there you go all right we look forward to hearing more exactly all right let's move on to uh just expo in general was amazing um
Speaker: I had a lot of people come up to me, you know, say that they really appreciate our content. It did make me chuckle because i went to breakfast with Julie and Craig, Bobby and Carter, and we were trying to take a selfie of everyone at the table. Right.
Speaker: And the table next was like, do you want me to take that for you? And we're like, yeah, thank you. And the guy goes, by the way, Scott, I love your podcast. Lose your kid. Awesome. Awesome. I love it.
Speaker: I'm Josh. I don't know if me getting LASIK, if like now going Yeah. Yeah. they So you're you're better looking. You look like me now. Okay. It made me chuckle. Okay. For future reference, Josh is the with the hair. I'm the bald one. hey Yeah.
Speaker: But it was, it was just funny. Um, but yeah, there was a ton, a ton of people like Carter was getting annoyed at how much we were in stopped inside of expo. Okay. Hey, thank you for listening. enjoyed it. I thank you for listening. And thanks for representing, yeah representing us.
Speaker: Um, made some new friends, Jan, uh, Grant and Jason from Nashville, Tennessee, uh, the pinball dudes, not to be confused with the pinball dudes of Florida,
Speaker: but Lots of dudes out there that they were very nice enough to sneak me into the Stern army appreciation party. Um, it was awesome. Uh, Gomez came over, saw me, be lined it for me. We had a great chat.
Speaker: Uh, I'm not going repeat anything on, on here, but seriously, Gomez, we love you. You're awesome. Um, Michael Grant, who's also into marketing as well. He went from American pinball.
Speaker: He came over, us he appreciated us, the positive force that we are in pinball. it just it was It was great to see not only appreciation from people that listen to us, but like also these manufacturers. like sure Every manufacturer I ran into, and granted, like i ran to Gomez the next day, and and he did mention like it is very interesting sometimes because there is a lot of love at Expo. right like It's all all positivity and whatnot, and sometimes that might not be instilled once and you leave Expo. But like, it is great to hear how much appreciation is for what they do at their job.
Speaker: And so, and I agree with that. Like it's, we really, i mean, pinball has exploded exponentially over the last five years and it's great to see it still expanding.
Speaker: So yeah. And I will say that for the most part it's okay. It's easy to, uh, to, to go for the rage bait in anything in life. Right.
Speaker: Because that's what happens. Uh, But I'll put it this way. I like playing pinball and being part of the pinball environment because it is kind of ah an oasis for me just to be able to say there is there's a big mixing pot that a lot of people can still play from all areas of life.
Speaker: agree. And it's nice that there is something that we could all um experience together. And I really appreciate... really what what Stern has been doing for the past 25 years because they really have created a high mark for everybody else to chase.
Speaker: i agree. I got to play the homebrew section. i think my standout game from the homebrew section was Attack on Titan. It was insanely cool. That's an anime from the two thousand Um, just Holy crap.
Speaker: I don't even know where to start. Go look for footage on online. It's so good. I still want to interview the guys from who did greatest showman from last year. i I know I talked to them last year and we, and I think I, I dropped the ball on that. So that, that is something I still want to talk, talk to them about because they did such an amazing job of, of re theming something. So,
Speaker: We haven't forgot about you, but absolutely. I have nothing but respect for the people who are willing to put their blood, sweat, and tears into a complete homebrew because that's hard.
Speaker: That's it's really hard. Dark Chaos was really good. Our friend Mikey from Quarters, who owns Quarters up in Salt Lake, he took his homebrew. Salt Lake City Punk, SLC Punk.
Speaker: um Not to be confused with the movie, else SLC Punk. Yeah, yeah there's there's a movie that is that weird. um I think there was some references and whatnot. But other than that, ah Ricardo James, our friend that did ah Coming to America, the Eddie Murphy homebrew.
Speaker: Amazing. ah There's just so many. It's amazing to me to see how much homebrew has grown from when I first went to Expo. six or five years ago and there was like seven machines sitting on the back yeah and it's usually like a white wood with maybe some some uh you know sticker on there yeah yeah yeah and like shout out to marco for like paying fronting the money to create this homebrew village.
Speaker: like just It's weird because it feels like that was separate from the rest of Expo because it was its own little world. Well, it kind of is. And I will say, i I love going to Expo because I like experiencing the ah the vintage, like the 1930s, the no flip stuff. Yes.
Speaker: And that was there again this year. They're awesome. i know yeah I don't remember their names, but they're there every year. And they're so sweet because they have the medals. So if you do something super hard, I missed a medal by one like jigsaw puzzle last year. So I'm still hoping to get one.
Speaker: Shout out to my son for helping me get my medal this year. Cause I was so frustrated. He got it on the second try oh and left and came back like an hour and a half later. And I was still going at it.
Speaker: And he's just like, dad, do this and this and you're good to go. And I'm like, Oh, Hey, look at that. And so I was good to go, but um seriously, they were great. um I feel like I'm just going through this list. I apologize. Like, well, okay, come on. It's three days, three to four days of just a lot of stuff. And so yes and I highly recommend expo. If you can go absolutely go next year. It's if you haven't been, if you haven't toured a factory, you haven't been able to see what actually goes into making a pinball machine, then you're missing out.
Speaker: Yeah. I would say one thing I did this year that I've never done the years before is I stayed at expo the whole time. Typically either go to pinball Olympics or I do the stern art, like the stern factory tour. 90% of my time was expo this year.
Speaker: And I almost felt like that was too much. Like, um, I would recommend either doing like a factory tour or doing pinball. I think you have to do factory tour.
Speaker: Pinball Olympics are fun. If you want a really over the top crazy party. Um, absolutely. So, uh, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna rattle these off really quick.
Speaker: Uh, shout out to Shane told from Silverstein. He was there. it was great to meet him and Ali. Um, Tony scoots every year you bring me cannolis. I look forward to It's one my highlights from scoochadero's. If you've never had their food, it is amazing. Get it while you're in Chicago, Tim Lee.
Speaker: You're awesome. Thanks for harassing me and telling you that Glenn, Glenn sucks at pinball all weekend long. re retro ralph uh jamie birchall cal hernandez you guys are all awesome it was great to get to talk to you don you're crazy i don't want to say about that and i'm gonna end um not end on this but like the last thing of expo was joel engelberth me, Doug Smith of cool toy and Melissa Loomis of male plays pinball were asked to do the content creation panel again this year.
Speaker: And for some odd reason, we were the very final seminar on Saturday, like the headlining slot and like my heart goes out to Dwight. know what's going on. I heard it's health issues. I hope you get feeling better and you you come back strong next year to do everyone loves the let's make a deal, right? Like it packs the hall. It's it's an insane.
Speaker: Um, but it was really cool if the video ends up on, um, the thing was, is they, they actually had two, some, uh, seminar halls this year. So they had one, like a main one and then the side one.
Speaker: So we were the side one and they told me they were recording it, but I haven't seen anything posted yet. So it might take a couple days, but if it does, we'll repost it and like share it and everything. But it was just fun to talk to people and it turned into more of like,
Speaker: new people wanting to get into content creation, asking us questions of what to do to help get over that hump. Right. So that was really fun. Nice. Well, I think at all, I'm looking forward to it too. Cause I was, uh, I, I was at a family event, so I couldn't even tune in.
Speaker: And so overall it was fantastic. One more thing before I forget to score bit, Holy crap. Like I'm addicted now, Scott. Like okay they had,
Speaker: They had dollar tournaments going on throughout all of Expo. You could scan your phone. It was a dollar per game or some game it was $2. You could buy your entries. I won on two games. I won like 20 bucks total.
Speaker: And I felt like freaking King Kong. And Grant, that jerk, ah knocked me off the totem list. I am literally the the next person... Like it goes, the person that gets paid and the person doesn't get paid. I told Grant my scoring. He's like, well, I'm going to go beat that. So he did.
Speaker: So he's the person that got paid and I'm the one that got knocked off the list. That's okay. Very, very, yet you're not supposed to gamble anyway, Josh. It's fine. It's not gambling. If you're playing for skill, right? Like, sure.
Speaker: Right. Like, well, all these, anyhow, let's make this game. Interesting. Yeah. But amazing. Like, Scorbit, very awesome what you're doing. ah Thanks for the swag, too. You guys are awesome.
Speaker: um I think that wraps it up for Expo. Like, seriously, my head's still swimming because it's Monday. Like, I just barely got back yesterday. Okay, so what I really want is I want other people to message us about their Expo experience. And so we'll do a recap on the next episode.
Speaker: Yes. That's my, that's my request. If you were at expo, I want you to do your highs and things that they can improve on. Let's keep it positive. And then we'll, we'll do a quick recap on the next episode.
Speaker: Sounds good. Uh, before I wrap it up, if you're stayed all the way to the end, I know you're a true pinball fan. I picked up dirty Donnie must be destroyed.
Speaker: If you don't know who that is, dirty Donnie created the art originally for Metallica. And then he was at Stern in a while, made Aerosmith, made Pat's Can Crusher. This game, not game, this book is thick. It's actually done, ah was was published by IDW Comics, which is the same guys that did the Ninja Turtles, the new stuff.
Speaker: it's It's Scott, this is cool. So you can either get through Amazon, you can get it through penguin House, and then IDW as well. But like, seriously, it' so it's kind of like his career experience.
Speaker: and i like and uh it's cool by the way he is definitely really cool do you what's even cooler like okay let me see if i can find it because so there's foldouts in this thing and like the center folds is that what you call them nowadays or i think that's something else but uh okay i'm not far enough in there it is right there here's aerosmith right and look at this dude it's a full fold out of arrows if you're looking for a cool pinball book this is certainly something you can get for someone yeah it it was like 45 bucks it's hardcover it's got the matte finish except for you know shiny done in certain spots to make it stand out like the eyes shine and stuff like that really i've been enjoying this book i just i know that like
Speaker: I don't know. It's pinball. Sometimes you need guests for those people in pinball. So yeah, we'll come up on Christmas anyway, right? Like this is, it's just, it's really, really cool. Like, and and it's, it's ah separated into different uh different parts of his career so like band posters obviously done from a lot for metallica and stuff like that like i didn't realize he did posters for no effects in their final tour that happened last year so that was in here as well then coin operated right just it i can't remember what the other ones were like off the top of my head because i just but i just man this is really really cool
Speaker: Like I said, if you're a true pinball fan, I know you are because you stayed to the end of the episode. Check out Dirty Donnie Must Be Destroyed. it's It's definitely worth the buy to put on your coffee table. So when when people come over, like, what the heck is this?
Speaker: You know, if you nice you love art. So I thought you'd enjoy that and appreciate that. I just, ah yeah. we that We don't get a bunch of pinball books that come out. And it seems like when they do,
Speaker: They're far and few between, and they're always all cool. Like I have the Stern one where they did, can't remember the last game that's in it, but yeah, I should bring that one down sometime. I'd have to find that. It's over somewhere over here.
Speaker: But yeah, ah did I miss anything, Scott? Sorry, I talked lot. I think it's good. We're just asking, and thanks for listening, and i want to hear your experiences on Expo, so send those in. All right. If you want to get hold of us, we are LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
Speaker: If you want to get a hot of us on a hold of us on any of the socials at LoserKidPinball, like, subscribe, hype, all that jazz, comment below. Scott, give us our final words. All right. Stay positive.
Speaker: you
